Your place to share stories on and off the bus.
You’ve seen the “Touch Our Junk” marquee on Bush street probably a thousand times. Our storyteller, Jesse James, brings us deep into the back room of the famed adult theater where he unwittingly became an employee after a brief interview. Read more
For the last 9 years, we’ve been collecting stories from over 4,000 people about life on Muni. We think of Muni as the collective living room of San Francisco, and in this living room, anything can happen. With your help, we’ve documented what it’s like to live in our foggy city for nearly a decade.
Often, Muni Diaries feels like a long love letter to San Francisco: from falling in love with a rider who returns your lost wallet to helping a young man with his tie, we’ve captured some very human moments in our city. Our public transit has been the lens through which we say: this is San Francisco.
Every day, you, our readers and diaries submitters, reenforce how much you care about living here. And we want to know the rest of your story. What else makes San Francisco the city we know and love?
Today we are introducing a new series: San Francisco Diaries. We’re expanding our lens of storytelling, and we want to hear your stories about how San Francisco has shaped you. Whether it’s a story about growing up in San Francisco, making your own mark on the map, or finding the moment when you know you’re really from here — San Francisco Diaries is your place to add your slice of life.
To kick off San Francisco Diaries, we have a special episode of our podcast from storyteller Jesse James. Jesse shares a story about how he unwittingly got a job at the Nob Hill Theater after a very brief interview. For those of you who have passed by the “Touch Our Junk” marquee on Bush, you definitely don’t want to miss this. Listen to the first episode of San Francisco Diaries on iTunes, Google Play, or download the episode.
You can continue to submit your stories about Muni (after all, what’s our city without it?), and stories about San Francisco by emailing us or tagging us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Photo by @yellow_line_art
Ay, caramba! This guy jumping off of the narrow handrails at a BART station is having more fun than just about anyone else. Thanks to @ocular.pleasantries on Instagram sent over this mind-boggling action shot. We hope there was a good landing at the end!
Muni seems to be the perfect backdrop for life hacks, like this unconventional way to ride a bus, or this Muni-powered trip down the block.
Got other important news for your fellow riders? Tag us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Our email inbox muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com is always open!
Ever feel like: sometimes you can’t live with Muni, but other times you can’t live without it? Boy, do we know that feeling. If you’re on the lookout for the shirt that perfectly describes our love-hate relationship with Muni, we’ve found a new batch of local shirt makers for you.
Above: Studio Nico Muni Transfer shirt, $26 (get them while you still remember what paper transfers look like!). Read more
First, we lost those colorful Fast Passes. Then, we try to forget that paper transfers are on their way out. But honestly, we can’t pretend any more: the new Muni fare boxes are being installed and increasingly seen on buses in the wild. Reporter Joe Fitzgerald at the Examiner just saw one this evening, serving up less-than-pretty transfers that kind of look like receipts:
Photo credit: San Francisco Examiner
To be fair, we’ve been talking about this since, oh, 2015, and the new fare boxes (and new transfers) are designed to provide faster boarding, amongst other benefits. SFist has the scoop on how this all came to be:
“One of the biggest changes beyond having a more modern fare box is the old tear-off transfers are a thing of the past. The fare boxes will generate a printed transfer, or printed proof of payment, which has a big safety benefit for our operators,” [SFMTA Director of Transit Ed] Reiskin gushed to the SFMTA board.
I guess we can say goodbye to the unexpected delight when a generous driver gives you a Late Night transfer a few hours early. And forget about holding the bottom of your transfer to try to get by (Driver Doug will call you out, in any case, as he explains on our podcast episode recently).
For now, if you collect enough transfers in the next couple of months, you might still be able to make one of these nifty, soon-to-be-extinct craft projects:
Now and then: Muni transfer art
How long is this giant Muni transfer good for?
More Cool Muni Transfer Art
Or you could permanently commemorate how much you love the paper transfer like this impressive tattoo.
Designer Pablo Stanley (@pablostanley) rides Muni just like the rest of us, but he can animate a scene on Muni in under 30 seconds!
Well ok, maybe there’s a little time-lapse magic in the video, but it’s pretty cool to see this process nonetheless. And we definitely appreciate the blue tinted world that he painted here.
We’ve seen other impressive artistic endeavors, some done right on the bus, like artist Avner Geller who shares a video about what it’s like to draw people on Muni, or this clip by Lev Yilmaz comparing Muni riders to those who he had seen on the Boston T.
Got your own artistic spin on our daily ride? Tag us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. Our email inbox muni.diaries.sf@gmail.com is always open!